Lawyers for Philly detectives charged with perjury in a murder case grill the man imprisoned for the crime - then freed
Anthony Wright was freed after 25 years. Three Philly detectives are charged with lying about evidence in his case.
Anthony Wright, who spent 25 years behind bars for a killing prosecutors now say he did not commit, took the witness stand Wednesday at the perjury trial of the homicide detectives who helped send him to prison and said they forced him to sign a false confession.
But under questioning from defense lawyers, Wright quickly found himself cast as a liar.
One of the attorneys, Brian McMonagle, told the jury Wright had been “telling himself lies [for] so long” that he started to believe them.
Wright’s testimony came during the trial of Detectives Martin Devlin, Frank Jastrzembski, and Manuel Santiago, who are charged with perjury and false swearing for allegedly lying about key evidence in the homicide investigation. Prosecutors say the three men lied to keep an innocent man in prison and to cover up their own wrongdoing during the investigation.
Though Wright is not on trial, Wednesday’s testimony made clear the defense strategy of challenging his innocence in the 1991 rape and killing of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown.
Wright was found guilty in 1993, but his conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial when DNA evidence implicated another man. A second jury acquitted Wright in 2016.
McMonagle on Wednesday tried to poke holes in Wright’s long-held insistence that he had an alibi on the night of Talley’s slaying, that detectives coerced him to confess, and that they refused to let him see the confession when he signed it.
The attorney also noted that Wright had accused others of lying about him as he contends the detectives did.
Witnesses at Wright’s 1993 trial placed him at the homicide scene, but Wright denied that and said he did not know any of his accusers. Others said he ransacked Talley’s house to get money for a drug habit. Wright said he had never used crack cocaine.
Wright grew visibly frustrated with questions after nearly three hours on the stand, insisting his account has not materially changed.
Common Pleas Court Judge Lucretia Clemons reminded attorneys several times that this proceeding is not Wright’s 2016 retrial.
Prosecutors say the three detectives, now retired, lied on the stand at Wright’s retrial and in depositions in the federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against the city after his acquittal. They say Devlin and Santiago lied about the confession, while Jastrzembski lied about key evidence that linked Wright to the murder scene.
Following Wright’s testimony, prosecutors spent the afternoon introducing transcripts and DNA sample results for the jury — evidence that is expected to become more central in the trial in the coming days.
Testimony is expected to continue Thursday.